Flash fiction project: one dark story per day, all the way through October, each one based on one normal thing gone wrong. More of this year’s stories here. You can find last year’s stories here, or at Amazon as October Nights.

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Normal thing: Signatures

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DEFECTS

Penmanship is very important. Even something as simple as thoughtlessly signing one’s name on a document can be used to deduce one’s personality. One’s nature can be extracted, as it were, from the degree to which the letters lean to the right (a forward thinker) or to the left (someone who is always scrambling backward, restraining themselves, holding themselves back, over-cautious). The height of the letters is important. The proportions of the letters are important. The degree to which one’s letters extend upward indicates one’s participation in the realm of the intellect. A sharp point on letters that extend upward indicates a sarcastic or sardonic attitude toward the world, and is more commonly seen in men than in women. Rounded letters in the top register indicate a sweeter, more congenial personality, which is more often seen in women. The middle register, that is, the space that is occupied by the letter o, for example, indicates the size of one’s ego. When the middle register is quite large compared to the rest of the letter, then it indicates that the writer has a large ego; however, an undersized middle register can prove itself almost completely unable to be read. Handwriting is the most pleasing when the upper, middle, and lower registers are balanced and leaning slightly to the right. Too upright a hand indicates a stiff, uncompromising personality. To lean with excess to the right or left, unseemly enthusiasm or restraint.

Interpretation of the lower register deals with the sexual urges. One should not be too florid in those areas; lower-register letters that curl back upon themselves, such as a y or a g, can indicate sexual deviancy and are often judged as such. When writing on unlined paper, it is essential to keep handwritten lines parallel with each other and with the horizontal edges of the page. To drift upward is to indicate a foolish personality; a downward tilt indicates melancholy and depression. Those whose lines wander are to be suspected of mental instability, especially if the letters lean at once to the right, then to the left, and back again. Neat and tidy handwriting of even pressure indicates a well-regimented mind. Excessive flourishes are to be avoided as an attempt to add personality to a hand that possesses little character of its own. Certain professions requiring a great deal of mental effort and a lot of writing—doctors’ and executives’ hands come to mind—are to be treated with a little sensitivity of judgment; persons of great character often have their minds on more important things than the clarity of their pens.

One must always remember that there is no such thing as a natural hand; no babe in swaddling cloth is born knowing how to write at all, let alone in a legible fashion. The style of one’s first letters, while admired by one’s parents and teachers, is hardly to be retained throughout one’s years. To habituate oneself to clear handwriting even when one is writing swiftly is a task requiring many hours of effort, to be sure, but it is one that will always stand you in good stead. One can only really understand another through one’s handwriting; an entire layer of meaning is lost when reading something printed in type. With conscious effort, one may train oneself into excellent habits of mind simply by training oneself to write with a moderate, well-balanced hand. Those of especial gifts may find themselves led to further arts, such as that of calligraphy, or “beautiful writing,” in which the flight of the spirit may freely express itself; to write beautifully is itself an art, one of the highest and most refined, and one may be sure that all who practice it well are of a superior nature.

In order to improve one’s hand, it is important to study it for defects, and to be constantly on the lookout for elements which creep in or attempt to reassert themselves. To be sure, following these instructions with constancy will help establish moderacy and temperance in one’s daily life; one might never aspire to the heights of the art, but certainly one may soften the effects of one’s flaws through the simple, consistent use of a legible, clear handwriting, rather than the lazy and impersonal use of type that is today so common.

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For years, people harassed my daughter for not having neat enough handwriting.